


Lost at Sea

by wishesonfallenstars



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Pirates, Sirens, lesbians at sea, mermaid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 07:49:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16614857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishesonfallenstars/pseuds/wishesonfallenstars
Summary: She hunts humans for sport. It's the way of their people, one that Regina never questioned - after all, if they don't hunt they don't eat.





	Lost at Sea

**Author's Note:**

> For Lex.

The hunt starts at sundown. Before anyone on the ship realises that something is amiss, the ship is surrounded. Zelena leads the pack today, breaches the surface and sings the first few notes. They ease into it tonight, last weeks hunt having more than enough for everyone in the Tribe. She can taste the anticipation of her sisters, the water vibrates around them — they can enjoy themselves tonight.

As the ship draws closer more of the pack join in, melodies and harmonies forming, drawing it closer and closer with every note. By the time they have all broken the surface, most of sailors have been ensnared — far too many for anyone still in control to make a difference. The fear is tangible and it sends a shiver down her spine.

This is Regina’s favourite part of the hunt.

The moments right before a ship sinks, when the adrenaline starts to creep through her veins, her mouth starts to water, and every cell feels alive — a calm before a storm. The grinding from the belly of the ship on the rocks beneath signals to the pack. The first wave move forward and tear at the wooden bow, aiding the water that sneaks its way into the galley.

She holds back, part of the third wave tonight. Mal, Cruella, and Ursula are with her; they’re the lookouts. The outliers meant to keep the men under their spell, and if, by some strange stroke of luck, one should get away from the rest of the pack, should look like they may survive, they are to stop that from happening. No food goes to waste.

It’s a job everyone has to do, but Regina finds herself drifting — finds herself wishing that she was in the second wave. That she could be part of the first kills. Could revel in the feeling of someone taking their last breaths. She may well get that joy tonight, but it’s not guaranteed. She’s been part of the hunting parties for several years now — she has played the part of lookout over and over, but tonight she feels antsy. Her skin is crawling, tail twitching and she keeps grinding her teeth.

The screaming starts just before the second wave advances, and it calms some of the damsel fish swimming about her stomach for a few moments. Lets her bask in the sounds of the men on board realising their time is at end… but it doesn’t last forever. By the time the ship is more wreckage than vessel her blood is back to fizzing inside her veins. Regina scans the area, eyes jumping to every flicker, every scattered section of driftwood should it have someone clinging to it. There is a part of her praying to the Sea Gods for some brave (poor) few souls to break away from the massacre, to swim blindly past the perimeter Zelena set for them to guard.

She sees Ursula cut through the waves to tug a would-be-survivor down, down, _down_ out of the corner of her eye and she scowls when her sister rejoins them just below the rollings surface again — a satisfied, red-stained smirk on her lips. Something akin to envy surges through her, and the desperate want of someone to swim, unassuming, into her grasp takes over a little more and she grits her teeth, jaw locking. There is nothing to be spotted on the surface — nothing that won’t still be there when she comes back up — and she needs a second to focus herself, so she slips deeper beneath the water. Closes her eyes and takes a few breaths, forces her shoulders to relax before opening them again.

Something catches her attention just to the front of the rock formation she and her sisters had guided the ship towards. Inching closer a smile pulls at the corners of her lips and her mind finally settles.

She will get a kill tonight after all.

It’s hard to make out clearly, and the human doesn’t appear to notice that it's being followed, being stalked, hunted. So Regina hangs back, swims in the shadows of the sinking wreck and daydreams about how sweet this mortal will taste. How full she will be.

They’re several feet past the lookout posts when Regina notices something different with this meal. A covering has come loose from it’s head with the waves. At first she thinks it’s one of the few boys ships sometimes carry — it causes her to hesitate, unlike her Mother and sisters she dislikes the drowning of children, even human ones — but something about the way it swims looks almost familiar.  

It’s a girl. How she has managed to swim this far away from the bloodbath behind them, Regina has no idea. She hides behind outcropping of rocks and coral, watches as the girl keeps herself submerged for moments longer than Regina has seen any human from a wreck do before. She stays a few feet below the rolling surface, barely peeking above the waves to breathe before she’s using her arms to push herself back down, not kicking her tails until there is no chance of them breaking through the surface and being seen.

Despite everything, Regina finds herself impressed. She watches her swim, following in the dark, but the girl never once glances behind her — seems determined to not look at what lies behind her ever again. Though that is probably understandable, Regina muses, still trailing the human girl as she swims towards the shadowed shoreline. It doesn’t appear to be much longer when Regina notices that the girl is starting to tire — the current this far out from the coast is cruel — but the shadow of land is looming and when she glances back they are far enough away that anyone looking would have to concentrate to see them both.

The girl pushes herself those scant few feet to take another breath at the surface, but she bobs there a moment or two longer than normal, the movements keeping her afloat sluggish. When she does force herself back under to put more distance between her and the ruined ship, now on the seabed, she only manages to swim for a handful of seconds before her body seems to give up on itself.

Regina isn’t even completely aware of what she is doing until she is already darting forward, closing the metres between them before the girl goes limp, letting the ocean catch her with no promise to ever give her back to the land.

There’s not much information on humans in her tribe, outside of common knowledge among Merfolk from all Seven Seas, but she knows enough to bring them both to the surface once she has rescued the girl from the currents clutches. Breaking the surface, she shifts her hold on the human girl until her mouth is far enough away from the water. They float there for a moment or two — Regina ignoring the voice in the back of her head asking her why she intervened… why she didn’t kill her as soon as she saw her — and when she hears the girl take a breath something in her chest uncoils.

Glancing back to see that no one seems to be looking for her, Regina turns to face the dark smudge of land on the horizon. It’s not far, not for her, but she wonders how this human — a comparatively small one to others she has hunted in the past, too — ever entertained the notion that she could make it there alive. The girl stirs as they get closer to land, though she does not seem at all aware of who is keeping her afloat. She knows there is a port a few miles to the east, but that’s risky (riskier than saving a damn human) and there is a stretch of beach between there and the outcropping of rocks that protects a small cove where her people’s young sometimes go to play. Humans are so very rarely on that section of coastline that it seems to be her safest option.

The girl starts waking as they reach a relatively hidden area of beach. Her breathing is laboured but it’s easier to hear over the breaking waves and the now distant din of sinking ships and dying men. Regina lays her down at the water’s edge, moves herself further onto the sand before pulling the girl, mostly awake but still limp, further away from the seas reaching fingers.

She stays.

Everything she has ever been taught about humans is screaming at her to leave before she can be spotted. But she still stays. Sits in a few inches of water and watches as the girl comes round. Her skin is pale — though Regina can’t tell if that is her natural hue or if it is from being in the water for so long, maybe it's both — and her hair sticks to her and the sand beneath them. She can’t tell what colour it is, darkened as it is by water and with only the moon for light. When she sees her eyes blink open Regina resolves herself to heading back and ignoring the fact that she has, for all intents and purposes, saved a human.

“Thank you.” It’s weak when the girl’s voice reaches her before she can slip back into the waves unseen.

Turning to look over her shoulder, Regina tries to settle the nerves that flare back up when she realises that getting away without anyone ever knowing what she has done is no longer possible.

“You’re welcome,” she says when it becomes obvious that she has been silent for too long.

She still doesn’t leave.

“You weren’t on the ship.” The girl has lifted herself up slightly, shaky elbows keep her from being fully reclined as she looks at where Regina sits, petrified. “I’d have noticed another woman.” When she struggles to push herself higher looking like she may fall back down, Regina’s own hands shoot forward to help her sit. “You were in the water...” She trails off once she’s sitting upright under her own power, and Regina has let go of her arms.

Regina nods. Swallows the lump that’s formed in her throat and wonders if she should flee.

“You… you saved me. W-why?” She looks confused, brows furrowed with her head tilted to one side.

“I shouldn’t have,” Regina mutters, and when blue eyes settle on her she berates herself for even speaking.

“You still did it,” she presses. When Regina goes mute, she pushes some of the hair still clinging to her face behind her ears. “My name is Ruby.”

Regina ignores her, eyes fixed on the horizon — she needs to get back, needs to be there when everyone from the hunt returns to the rendezvous point.

The girl, _Ruby,_ clears her throat, “I won’t tell anyone.” She lets out a short, soft breath of laughter. “No one would believe me anyway. Your kind aren’t best known for helping mine.”

“No, it’s seen as unwise.”

Ruby nods. “I suppose I can understand that, a lot of things I’ve done in the past year are seen as unwise to humans.” She hesitates, her own gaze moves from Regina to the ocean, “If I asked you to meet me again, would you?” Her cheeks grow pink when the only response Regina gives her is to raise an eyebrow, puzzled as to why. “I owe you my life, I should like to thank you properly for that.”

“You said thank you,” she points out.

“Aye, I did,” Ruby agrees before chewing at her lips. “But just saying it doesn't seem enough right now.”

* * *

 “You came back.”

Regina nods but doesn’t come any closer to the rocks, choosing to stay waist deep in the water. Ruby smiles, cheeks still flushed from her climb over the rocks and she can not help but think it looks lovely on her.

“I didn’t think you would.”

“If I wasn’t going to come back, I would never have agreed.” Regina frowns, “Do humans often say things they do not mean?”

Her frown deepens when Ruby laughs. “Yes, unfortunately that is something that humans are known to do. Sometimes we lie to spare another’s feelings.” She shrugs, “It’s seen as the right thing to do then. I thought maybe you only agreed to spare mine,” she explains.

 _Humans have a lot of rules,_ she thinks, and Ruby’s laugh is brighter when she tells her that.

“May I ask you something?”Against her better judgement Regina finds herself nodding. “Does your tribe know about you saving me?”

She snorts at that, shakes her head and says, “I doubt they would understand, I don’t even understand why I did it.” _Mother would have my head._ She thinks that maybe she shouldn’t have said that. Letting Ruby know how easily Regina could have killed her, nearly did kill her, before she found herself fascinated by the stubborn little human swimming away undetected, is probably unwise. But Ruby smiles at her — she does that a lot, Regina notices — and nods.

“I need to go.”

“Wait!” Ruby’s voice reaches her before she can dip back below the waves. “What’s your name?” She stands in the surf, waves kissing her bare fins ( _feet_ she corrects herself) with one hand shielding her eyes from the sun

“Regina,” she calls back.

“Regina,” Ruby whispers before she smiles, a small, crooked smile, and repeats it back to herself once more under her breath. “It’s nice to meet you, Regina.”

Regina is still smiling when she reaches her tribe’s territory.

* * *

 The third time she visits the shore and sees Ruby already sprawled on the sand, Regina voices the suspicions she’s had since returning to her tribe after she learned Ruby’s name.

“You’re not human.”

“No. Not fully.”

There isn’t much lore on the Humans in her Tribe, let alone other creatures not of the Ocean. She even offered to visit neighbouring Tribes in an effort to see if their knowledge was broader only to be left wanting.

Ruby shifts, scrunches her nose and squints at where the moon is almost full behind the clouds.

“What do you know of Lycans?”

“Nothing,” Regina admits — she hates being in the dark.

Ruby nods like she was expecting that answer, stands up and starts to loosen her clothing. “Please don’t be afraid,” she says, and then her eyes are glowing and she’s not a girl anymore. She’s an animal of some sort, a huge, soft pelted beast of a creature.

And she is beautiful.

When Regina returns home that night she starts looking for anything and everything she can about Lycans, about Werewolves, and when she finds next to nothing she decides to demand answers from Ruby herself.

* * *

 

“Why were you on the ship?” Regina asks a full moon cycle later. “I’ve never seen one of your kind’s females on them before.”

Ruby shrugs, ducks her head down and to the side as she pushes strands of hair behind her ear. “No, I don’t suppose you have. We’re thought to be bad luck on ships, supposedly,” she says before grinning. “Though the ship did sink while I was on it, so who knows? Maybe women are bad luck.”

“That doesn’t make any sense…”

“Well, have you got any men in your society?” Ruby asks. “I’ve only ever heard tales of Mermaids, not men.”

“We do, but not many, they don’t partake in hunts. My tribe only has four at present.”  Ruby manages to look both shocked and not at all surprised at the same time, and it’s such an odd expression that Regina finds herself grinning at her. “Mermen are rare, we don’t require them to mate — our laws don’t require us to have a mate at all.”

Ruby nods. “Well, men seem to believe that if a woman is on board a ship, that the crew will be so busy fighting about her that they won’t do their jobs.” She rolls her eyes. “That’s not always the case, granted, there are crews — Pirate ones at least — that do have female members. I’ve heard stories of female Captains, and entirely female crews, but for the most part? If there are women on ships we dress as boys and hope to hell we aren’t found out. Most seem to think our rightful place is being the perfect wife, _mate_. They want us to be there to raise their children, and look after their house and not much else. At least,” she sighs, “they do in my country.”

“Will you go back?”

“No, no I don’t want to go back.” She sees a shiver trace down Ruby’s spine as she curls her knees into her chest and hunches over them, her good humour depleting. Before she can ask why, or try to comfort her at all, Ruby wipes under her eyes and fixes them on the rocks peeking above the waves just in front of where they sit. “An old acquaintance of my family approached my Grandmother. He wanted to arrange for me to wed him. Granny and I didn’t have much, and she couldn’t say no to such a powerful man. So she found a ship that would take me two Kingdoms over and enough money to get as far as Agrabah. I haven’t looked back.”

An anger builds in Regina’s chest at that, she finds herself wanting to make sure her new friend never gets that sad, longing look ever again. It’s been happening a lot in the last few moon phases since she prevented Ruby’s death — she’ll become angry on her behalf, or joyful at seeing her smile — so much so that she no longer questions it. “I’m glad,” she settles on eventually, unsure of how to put the feelings warring within her into words.

Ruby’s smile is radiant. Regina’s pulse jolts when her hand slips into hers, fingers weaving together before she squeezes it, says _I am too_ , and turns back to watch the ocean. Regina stares at their hands, at the difference between her own slightly darker skin and Ruby’s seashell-white, she rather likes how they look together.

**Author's Note:**

> this turned out way cuter than originally intended. don't worry, it won't stay that way.


End file.
